Here is my Concerto for Alto Flute and Electronics. It was composed for my daughter, Genevieve. She graduated as a music major from Oberlin in June, 2000. This piece was one of several she performed at her senior recital.

The piece is in three movements. The electronics were realized on a Clavia Nord Modular synthesizer which was multi-tracked digitally. In performance, the alto flute is performed live with the electronics part played from a CD on a stereo PA system. Thus, the performer can rehearse with the CD.

The flute part was intended to be improvised throughout, but I provided an example flute track for each movement which I improvised on synthesizer. My daughter liked my improvisation for the second movement so much that I "wrote out" the part and she plays from a score in the live performance and on this recording.

Most people like the second movement the best. It was up on mp3.com for several years and I received many nice comments from people. I hope you like it.

Thanks. The live performance was electrifying. The Oberlin people are very open minded and very well versed on contemporary music. There were also a lot of friends of my daughter. She played fantastically. I can't say I've ever heard a piece of new music as well received. It was one of the most thrilling experiences of my life.

Great stuff! These are the same files you had over at mp3.com way back? Same encodings?_________________A Charity Pantomime in aid of Paranoid Schizophrenics descended into chaos yesterday when someone shouted, "He's behind you!"

Oh yeah, I grabbed these from mp3.com just before they died.
With "movement one" I get a kick out of the irregular percussion, as though you were doing it with tongue in cheek. Are one of the hits a vocal sample? It reminds of the sounds from one of the mechanical arcade games where you hit the creature that pops out of one of the holes in a row with a mallet. Was there any humor behind this or am I way off?

The flute is marvelous and I dig the electronic sounds in contrast.

All three are cool by me but it was one and two that I chose to add to Headtones Radio months ago, btw thanks for getting the link to work.

I have to d/l again, as Elektro80 makes me wonder if these are of better quality than the mp3.com files, reencoded or whatever.

I notice stats in your post, is this a feature with uploading attachments in general?

Yeah, for some reason these files subjectivelly sounds better than those I got from mp3.com. Small issues... like microdetails sounds better.. more body to the sounds.. better stereofield.. some grunginess is gone.. small things..
I seem to remember I had the same experience listning to the encodings I did myself and then listening to my own files from my mp3.com page. I wonder if they did some kind of reencoding of uploaded files..?_________________A Charity Pantomime in aid of Paranoid Schizophrenics descended into chaos yesterday when someone shouted, "He's behind you!"

Yeah this piece really is special, Howard. I think I may have heard it back at MP3.COM but these do sound much better. Every movement has an intense personal approach to mixing the live with the bizarre electro-acoustic backdrops. Fantastic!

Love that third movement with the bubbly granular things and the calm flute on top. Very effective._________________musicportalblog

... "movement one" ... Was there any humor behind this or am I way off?

Yes, certainly the 1st movement is tongue in cheek. Once it was clear to me that for logistical reasons the flute was not going to have any processing, the challenge was how to get such a beautiful sonorous acoustical instrument to play with the electronics. So in the first movement, I just threw them at each other, with a percussion section to hold things together. The flute reacts to all the electronic gyrations to which it can't keep up by trying to convince it to calm down, and mellow out. My hope was that the first movement would remove as many of the audience's preconceptions of what this music was going to sound like. If they can't hear it as humorous, amusing and a little intriguing, then they should be a bit anxious and disoriented. It's a setup for what is to follow.

I tried to make the second movement like a Mozart concerto's second movement; simply beautiful; slow tempo; relaxed; harmonic; lyrical.

The third movement is very challenging for the flute because the electronics is very textural. I didn't want too much drama. After the sonorous second movement, my hope was that people would be ready for listening to the electronic sounds and hear them as beautiful in their own right, just as I do. It's up to the flute player to figure out how to play along. At first this was quite difficult so I added the string bass part which anchored things which gave the flute a lot more freedom. I was thrilled when Genevieve added on that little folky ending. Every time she plays it quite differently.

I had the same experience listning to the encodings I did myself and then listening to my own files from my mp3.com page. I wonder if they did some kind of reencoding of uploaded files..?

As far as I can tell, those are the same mp3 files I originally sent up to mp3.com, but you are probably right. When I first encoded these files, I was surprised at how good they sounded. In fact, I was quite amazed. Then after several months, I had someone over visiting the studio and decided to play this piece for them. I already had the browser open so I loaded the mp3.com page just clicked on the HiFi link. Wow, was I shocked at how muddy it sounded.

It never occured to me that they would reencode the tracks! I thought that I had previously misjudged the quality of the mp3 encoding. I was quite bewildered at how I could have possibly been so wrong in thinking that mp3 was of any value at all. In retrospect, I bet they reencoded things to save bandwidth and diskspace. Scheesh... .

These encoding were done with the Fronhaufer encoder at 128 kbs. I've sense downloaded the Lame encoder which have VBR encoding. This seems to be much better. The best is the ogg, in my opinion.

I notice stats in your post, is this a feature with uploading attachments in general?

Yes, works for all kinds of attachments.

BTW, we now have lots of bandwidth and disk capacity. There are quotas for obvious reasons, but we can increase them for any contributing members here. If you want your own forum in the Artists section, just ask. (Send me a PM or email).

I can see why your daughter liked the second part. She must be the romantic type, because it has a nice melangolic/longing edge to it.
although I liked the second and third part the best, together they form a nice triptych.

Also I liked the way you used the Modular. I'm working on a way to combine my Micro Modular with an Iranian folksong. But it is very easy to fall into cliche's.

too tempting to add to this. To get the full experience of the first movement, you have to visualize mosc wincing in evil pleasure at anything non-traditional and laughing at your attempt to keep your poker face during the music.

I went to the premier, although I think I was backstage for the playing. I must say, oberlin is THE PLACE if you want an open minded audience.

Hi Howard, i especially like the electonics in the piece. I have studied the flute as well, so i missed some extended techniques(like key claps, dubble tones etc.) that would made the piece more complete. Now, the piece is walking on different feelings, in my point of view.(sorry, for the crittics).If you want i can give you some guide lines for that. Mail me private then:) Did you now f.i.you can get some beautiful ring mod like sounds from the flute? keep one note steady, but make with your voice a glide. That sorta things. I made several pieces for flute and electronics, if you're interested i can send you a cd.(a bit dated pieces). One composer for flute solo i can recoment you is the Japanese composer Fukushima, esp. his Requem,
Beautifull! You can hear somebody is a gonner. And after that...............
a beautifull quitness in just a few notes(as bells), breathtaking. With quarter notes. But... a big kiss to Genevieve, you did great work there. And (as i think) its a medival name, so as named after a knight i bow for you:)_________________Roland Kuit
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composer|research|synthesis|sound design|lecturer
http://rolandkuit.com/Last edited by Roland Kuit on Fri Feb 25, 2005 6:20 am; edited 1 time in total

Hi Howard,
I listened to the second movement. This is very beautiful, and I think you have achievd the Mozart quality, the lyricism of the flute part. The electronics with the flute is a great combination. The "noisiness" of the elctronics juxtaposed with the pure flute tone is quite magical. I will download the other mvts to listen to it in it's entirety.
Is your daughter still interested in this sort of piece. One of my tutor did a piece for flute and electronics, called "Sound Cylinder". A very good piece. I have seen it performed several times, once at our town hall (very good acoustics). Maybe she would be interested in this piece. I can easily get a recording and a score (I think)
I love the instrument electronics piece. I attempted one once, for oboe. The two parts never worked together, but fortunately, the electronic part was successful by itself (phew, my 2nd year grade was depending on it!).
Listening to the mvt again. Really lovely and honest. Organic, which considering the medium, is a true triumph.

Roland, you are right, there aren't any unusual or advanced flute sounds in this piece. That's up to the performer. I have mixed feelings about these techniques. Naturally I like them, but sometimes they make me think that they are an attempt to make the flute sound electronic. Most of this piece is about the contrast between the electronic and the acoustic. As for the advanced techniques, you can talk directly to Genevieve at the electro-music 2005 event.

Static, glad you appreciate the humor in this.

Mustel. Glad you like the 2nd movement. It is the favorite movement of most people. Being mentioned in the same sentence as Mozart is more than I deserve, but it makes my day nevertheless - thanks. Actually, I was thinking "What would Mozart do?" constantly when this was being composed. He's the concerto master, IMHO. I have a funny feeling about most of the Mozart concerti - the 1st and 3rd movements are designed as frames or settings for the 2nd which is almost always the gem. I'm not sure Genevieve has the opportunity to perform flute music too much these days, but I'll send her an email to make sure she reads your offer._________________--Howard
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